I currently have set up a Linksys router so I can get wireless internet in my house. However, I also run an ftp off my machine, no copyrighted material, just religious materials. When I try to access it from outside my internal network, it can not be found. My friend recommended that I need port mapping or the like to open a port to access it. What should I do? Any input would be appreciated. Thanks.

you have to go to your router setup page. This is a webpage usually accessed by opening your browser and putting 192.168.0.1 in the address box. You might have to put an http:// before it. Your router manual can tell you. Once in the setup you have to go to the page where you setup ports. For a server you usually setuo what's called a "virtual server" on port 21. You have to activate this port and reboot the router.

Actually for a Linksys router you will probably connect to it using a web browser like Internet Explorer. The address should be http://192.168.1.1 if it still has the factory settings.

Once you connect to the router click the advanced tab and then click the Port Forwarding tab. Now you'll have to forward port 21 to your computers IP addresss.

Now I would recommend turning off DHCP in the router and hard coding an IP address for each computer connected to the router (something like IP address: 192.168.1.2 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 Gateway 192.168.1.1 DNS numbers you might have to get from the cable company or you can click Start-->Run-->cmd then run ipconfig /all and that should give you your DNS numbers.

So write down the DNS numbers and the subnet mask and the IP address. Now, on your desktop right-click Network Neighborhood and Choose properties. Right-click Local Area Connection and choose properties. Select TCP/IP (don't uncheck the box) and click properties. This is where you'll plug those numbers in.

When you make the changes to your router you don't have to reboot it. Just click the apply button. All should work if I didn't leave anything out.

On a side note, many ISPs block incoming port 21 requests so their subscribers can't run FTP Servers. You can simply change the port your FTP Server is running on if this is the case. There should be a setting on the FTP Server to do this.

Another good thing to have so you don't have to remember you IP address when accessing your FTP Server is http://www.no-ip.com

When I try set up www.no-ip.org to see my machine, it sees the router address only allowing it to only connect to the router not to the internal network behind it. And to my knowledge I did not see a way on the no-ip.org free registration to selection what port to connect on nor a means to illustrate the fact that it is an ftp server.

Originally posted by Ztrain:When I try set up www.no-ip.org to see my machine, it sees the router address only allowing it to only connect to the router not to the internal network behind it. And to my knowledge I did not see a way on the no-ip.org free registration to selection what port to connect on nor a means to illustrate the fact that it is an ftp server.

The only thing NO-IP needs is what your IP address is on the wan side of your router. It doesn't matter that it is an FTP server. Your router takes care of the port forwarding to your machine on your lan.

If you go to "Manage" on www.no-ip.com you should see something similar to this. Now, to get to my webserver (which runs on port 8000 since my ISP blocks port 80) I would use the following address: http://mithrilhall.no-ip.com:8000

Now, in the router you would have to Forward port 8000 to the appropriate IP address (example: 192.168.1.3). You will also have to make sure your webserver is running on the correct port (In my case it's 8000).